Evaluation of soil nutrient index and their relation with soil chemical properties of washim road farm of Dr.PDKV Akola, Maharashtra, India

The present study was conducted during the year 2018 and 2019 at Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra with an aim to know the macro and micronutrient status of soils of Washim road farm, Dr. PDKV Akola. Grid based (GPS) forty-four (44) surface (0-20 cm depth) soil samples were collected by grid survey method at 200m distance from Washim road farm and analyzed as per standard procedure for judging chemical properties and available nutrient status of soil. The results indicate that all the soils were slightly alkaline to moderately alkaline in reaction and free from soluble salt hazard. Organic carbon content were ranged from 2.34-8.97 g kg-1 , soils of Washim road farm was moderately calcareous to calcareous due to presence of CaCO3 in soil. Nutrient index value (NIV) showed moderate for organic carbon, phosphorus and available Sulphur whereas moderately high for CaCO3, very low for available N and very high for available potassium. Among available micronutrients Fe, Zn, Mn showed low nutrient index value (NIV), Cu found to have high nutrient index for Washim road farm.

Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.809.205

Evaluation of Soil Nutrient Index and their Relation with Soil Chemical Properties of Washim Road Farm of Dr.PDKV Akola, Maharashtra, India

Vijay A Dhotare*, V D Guldekar, S M Bhoyar and Sagar N Ingle

Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Dr PDKV, Akola-444 104

Maharaashtra, India

*Corresponding author

A B S T R A C T

Introduction

Soils are inherently heterogeneous in nature,

diverse and dynamic system and its properties

change in time and space continuously

Heterogeneity in soil properties with depth

and across landscapes can be accounted for by

several interacting factors that operate with

different intensities and at different scales and

acting simultaneously Soil is a medium for

crop productivity Crop productivity depends

on many factors and soil fertility is major branch amongst all Soil fertility has direct relation with crop yields, provided other factors are in optimum level Soil fertility must be periodically estimated as there is continuous removal of macro and micronutrients by crop intensively grown in every crop season The availability of soil nutrients for plant growth and yield production

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences

ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 09 (2019)

Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com

The present study was conducted during the year 2018 and 2019 at Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, Maharashtra with an aim to know the macro and micronutrient status of soils of Washim road farm, Dr PDKV Akola Grid based (GPS) forty-four (44) surface (0-20 cm depth) soil samples were collected by grid survey method at 200m distance from Washim road farm and analyzed as per standard procedure for judging chemical properties and available nutrient status of soil The results indicate that all the soils were slightly alkaline to moderately alkaline in reaction and free from soluble salt hazard Organic carbon content were ranged from 2.34-8.97 g kg-1, soils of Washim road farm was moderately calcareous

to calcareous due to presence of CaCO3 in soil Nutrient index value (NIV) showed moderate for organic carbon, phosphorus and available Sulphur whereas moderately high for CaCO3, very low for available N and very high for available potassium Among available micronutrients Fe, Zn, Mn showed low nutrient index value (NIV), Cu found to have high nutrient index for Washim road farm In Washim road farm statistical correlation ship showed significant and positive correlation of organic carbon with ECThe DTPA extractable Fe (r= 0.303*) and Mn (r= 0.321*) showed positive and significant correlation with available N

K e y w o r d s

nutrient status, grid

survey, GPS,

chemical property,

macronutrients,

micronutrient,

correlation, nutrient

index

Accepted:

20 August 2019

Available Online:

10 September 2019

Article Info

soil pH, soil organic matter and texture, and

soil biological activities Hence, determination

of such parameters is important for evaluating

nutrient behavior in the soil and for suggesting

appropriate methods of enhancing nutrient

availability to plant (Shazia et al., 2017)

All researches in soil fertility have one

common goal that is to assess nutrient

supplying capacity of the soil, deficiencies of

nutrient if any and to supply nutrient based on

crop needs Thus, in the game of crop

production, there are three dependent and yet

interdependent players the soil, the plant and

fertilizers, each one of them key players

(Goswami, 1999).The challenge during the

next millennium is to achieve and sustain

growth rates high enough to feed the swelling

population without degrading the environment

(NAAS, 1997).The fertility status of soils can

be evaluated by using nutrient index method

and fertility indicators Ravikumar and

Somashekar (2013) evaluated the nutrient

index of soils using organic carbon, available

P and available K concentrations as a measure

of soil fertility in Varahi River basin, India

The aim of this contribution is to describe

spatial distribution of basic soil properties and

vulnerability coefficient on the Washim road

farm and to analyse statistical relationship

between soil properties

Materials and Methods

The Washim road farm lies between longitude

76°59’42.7” to 76°59’34”E, Latitude

20°40’42” to 20°40’58”N Total 44 surface

soil samples with (0-20 cm depth) from

cultivated area of the washim road farm Dr

PDKV, Akola were collected using Global

Positioning System (GPS) at grid interval of

200 m The grid wise sample were collected,

the sample were labeled, air dried and sieve

through 2 mm sieve for analysis of soil

fertility parameter

Soil pH and electrical conductivity at 1:2.5 soil water suspensions (Jackson 1973) Organic carbon was measured by Chromic acid wet digestion method (Walkley and Black 1934) And CaCO3 was determined by rapid titration method (Piper 1966) Available N was determined by method described by Subbiah and Asija (1956), the available P was colorimetrically as per Jackson (1973), the available K was estimated by extracting the soil with 1 N NH4OAC (pH 7.0) by using flame photometer (Jackson, 1973) and Available Sulphur was estimated by 0.15% CaCl2extractable method (Piper, 1966) While the available micronutrient cation (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) were extracted by DTPA-CaCl2extract (Lindasay and Norvell,1978).The soil nutrient index was calculated according to the procedure given by Ramamoorthy and Bajaj (1969)

Results and Discussion

The results presented in (Table 1) revealed that the pH of the soils of Washim road farm, were ranged from 7.50 to 8.60 indicating slightly to moderately alkaline in reaction The alkaline reaction of soil is probably due to presence of sufficient free

lime content in these soils (Jibhkate et al.,

2009).The EC ranged from 0.13 to 0.38 dSm- and suitable for healthy plant growth (Padole and Mahajan, 2003) The EC value

<1.0 indicate that these soils are free from hazard of soluble salts as prescribed by Richards (1954)

The soils were low to moderately high in organic carbon content (2.34 to 8.97 g kg-1) The low content of organic carbon might be due to slow rate of decomposition and continuous utilization by plants for the uptake of nutrients Similar results were

reported by Patil et al., (2008) in the soils of

Agriculture college farm, Pune

The free lime content ranged from 4.25 to

10.0 % It indicates that these soils are

moderately calcareous (18%) to calcareous

(82%) in nature

The data presented in (Table 1) revealed that

the available nitrogen in Washim road farm

ranged from 100.35 - 175.61 kg ha-1 Similar

observations were also recorded by Dhale and

Prasad (2009) As per rating standard, soils of

Washim farm low in available nitrogen

content The soils thus need judicious

application of both organic manure and

nitrogenous fertilizers to meet the N

requirement of crops grown in them.The

available phosphorus ranged from 13.25 to

22.4 kg ha-1 in Washim road farm.The

variation in the availability of phosphorus

might be due to variation in CaCO3 content of

the soil, different soil properties and

agronomic practices The result closely point

by Bharambe et al., 2001.The available

potassium for Washim road farm soil ranged

from 340.14 to 539.05 kg ha-1 As per ratings,

soils containing available potassium more than

300 kg ha-1 categorized as very high in

available potassium content The data on the

basis of available potassium content indicates

that the soils have no problem of K deficiency

Similar results were also reported by Kashikar

(1983)for black soils.Sulphur ranged from

7.58 to 16.4 mg kg-1 As per ratings, soils

containing available Sulphur more than 20 mg

kg-1 categorized as very high in available

Sulphur content Low available Sulphur in

these soils may be due to the less supply of

Sulphur containing fertilizers The results

closely confirmative with (Wagh et al., 2008)

The DTPA extractable Fe content in soils of

ranged between 2.05 to 5.96 mg kg-1,

considering critical limit for DTPA –Fe

2.5-4.5 mg kg-1 as given by Katyal and

Rattan(2003) these soils are found to be

sufficient in available Fe content it is due to

soils (Jibhkate et al.,2009).Magnitude of

available manganese content in soils ranged from 0.82 to 4.47 mg kg-1 indicates very low

to medium status The available zinc extracted

by DTPA varied from 0.12 to 0.88 mg kg-1 for soils under study are categorized as a medium

in available zinc status Similar observation

was recorded by Gajbhiye et al., (1993)

The available copper extracted by DTPA ranged between 0.73 to 3.12 mg kg-1 Considering critical limit of 0.2 mg kg-1 as suggested by Katyal and Rattan (2003), these soils are categorized as high in available copper content Similar results were reported

by Jibhkate et al., (2009)

Nutrient Index Value

As per the NIV developed by Ramamoorthy and Bajaj (1969) the nutrient index values were calculated for Washim road farm of the University, to know the fertility status of these soils (Table 2) The soil nutrient index value

of Washim road farm calculated for organic carbon content was 1.73 with moderate category Nutrient index value calculated for calcium carbonate was 1.90 with moderately high category As regards the available nitrogen content nutrient index value was 0.75 with very low category

Phosphorus the major important nutrient in terms of plant growth was available in moderate category with NIV 1.57 nutrient index value for potassium shows very high with 3.0 NIV

As per the NIV developed by Ramamoorthy and Bajaj (1969) the nutrient index values were calculated for Washim road farm of the University, to know the fertility status of these soils (Table 2) The soils of Washim road farm showed low nutrient index value (NIV) for available Zn, Fe, Mn i.e 1.04, 1.12 and 1.35,

Table.1 Status of Nutrient for Washim road farm of the University

Table.2 Status of Nutrient Index Value (NIV) for Washim road farm

CaCO 3 (%) 1.90 Mod High

No of

sample

analysed

OC (g kg-1) 2.34- 8.97 5.88 0 3 (7%) 17

(39%)

23 (52%) 1 (2%) 0

(18%)

36 (82%) 0 0

N (kg ha-1) 100.35-

175.61

139.7

2

22 (50%)

22 (50%)

P (kg ha-1) 13.25-22.4 18.01 0 2 (5%) 33

(75%)

K (kg ha-1) 340.14-

539.05

420.7

7

(100%)

S ( mg kg-1) 7.58- 16.4 11.51 0 12

(27%)

28 (64%)

4 (9%)

Fe ( mg kg-1) 2.05- 5.96 4.06 4 (9%) 25

(57%)

15 (34%)

Mn ( mg kg

-1

)

0.- 4.47 2.63 7

(16%)

8 (18%)

20 (46%)

Zn ( mg kg-1) 0.12- 0.88 0.46 11

(25%)

18 (41%)

15 (34%)

Cu ( mg kg-1) 0.73- 3.12 1.78 0 0 0 1(2%) 6

(14%)

37 (84%)

Table 3 Relationship between soil chemical properties with available macro and micronutrients in Washim road farm

EC -0.019 1

OC -0.131 0.308* 1

Fe 0.135 0.244 -0.049 0.071 0.303* 0.152 -0.266 0.111 1

Mn 0.068 0.276 0.055 -0.07 0.321* 0.284 -0.295 0.084 0.186 1

Zn 0.138 -0.06 0.201 0.112 -0.152 -0.114 0.099 -0.04 0.142 -0.320* 1

Cu -0.151 -0.042 0.009 -0.088 -0.146 0.016 -0.172 -0.253 0.107 0.122 -0.18 1

*Significant at 5% level of significance

** Significant at 1% level of significance

This soil was in category of very high nutrient

index value (NIV) for available Cu i.e 2.73

The details of soil nutrient index of

micronutrients for Washim road farm of the

University presented in the Table 2

Correlation

The overall correlation studies between

chemical properties and available macro and

micronutrients for Washim road farm was

analysed and presented below

In Washim road farm statistical correlation

showed significant and positive correlation of

organic carbon with EC which is evident by

‘r’ values of 0.308* The DTPA extractable Fe

(r= 0.303*) and Mn (r= 0.321*) showed

positive and significant correlation with

available N Similarly, available zinc showed

significantly but negative correlation with Mn

of soil (r= -0.320*) It was observed that

available S showed positive and significant

relation with available P (r=0.420*) in the soil

It can be concluded that, the soils of Washim

road farm are slightly alkaline to moderately

alkaline in soil reaction, safe in electrical

conductivity, low to moderate high in organic

carbon content and moderately calcareous to

calcareous in nature According to the concept

of soil nutrient index soils are very low in the

available N, medium in P, high in K and

medium in S content Nutrient index for

micronutrients are low in available Fe, Mn, Zn

and high in available Cu content

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How to cite this article:

Vijay A Dhotare, V D Guldekar, S M Bhoyar and Sagar N Ingle 2019 Evaluation of Soil Nutrient Index and their Relation with Soil Chemical Properties of Washim Road Farm of

Dr.PDKV Akola, Maharashtra, India Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci 8(09): 1773-1779

doi: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.809.205